Levi Ogilvy

Levi Ogilvy (1891-) was Prime Minister of Australia from 1 January 1946 to 11 September 1949, preceding Alexander Rayment. He was a a Liberal Party of Australia politician.

Biography
Levi Ogilvy was born in Port Augusta, South Australia, Australia in 1891 to a family of Scottish immigrants, and he became a successful lawyer. He was later elected to the federal parliament for the Nationalist Party of Australia and the United Australia Party, and he became party chairman of the Liberal Party of Australia in 1945 and leader in January 1946. He also became Prime Minister that same year.

Ogilvy's tenure as Prime Minister marked an era of frequent strikes, austerity measures, and economic downturn. Ogilvy enacted austerity measures to deal with the decline of the economy, raising taxes and tariffs and eliminating government spending. Ogilvy even disbanded Australia's standing army in a failed attempt to save money. Ogilvy became unpopular for his destruction of Australia's proud military and for his inability to end the economic downturn, and his party survived the 1947 election solely through its alliance with other right-wing parties, forming a minority government. Ogilvy's government was still unable to enact any much-needed economic reforms, so he tried to succour the angry populace with some political reforms. He enacted universal suffrage during the 1949 election, but his attempt to rebrand the Liberal Party as a forward-thinking conservative party backfired, as it instead led to the Australian Labor Party winning the election with a majority. Ogilvy was forced to resign, as his party was nearly destroyed by the ALP.